Israel/Palestine: Maavak Sotzialisti (‘Socialist Struggle’) on the
events in Palestine

The members of Maavak Sotzialisti, the Israeli section of the CWI, call and actively campaign for the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli army from all of the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We support unconditionally the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and an independent state, including the right to resist the Israeli occupying forces with arms.

We explain to Jewish workers and youth that Sharon’s capitalist "national unity" government cannot bring them security anymore then it can provide decent jobs and living conditions. We also explain to reserve and regular soldiers alike that they should not die in vain in this war against the Palestinian masses, which will only increase suicide attacks against Israeli civilians.

This is why we support the more than 1,000 Israelis who have refused to serve in the occupied territories. At the same time, we believe that the tactic of suicide attacks against Israeli citizens is counter-productive and does not serve the cause of Palestinian freedom, since it drives Israeli workers and youth to the arms of rightwing reactionaries like Sharon.

We call on the Palestinian masses to form grassroots popular committees in order to democratically control their struggle for national and social liberation and to appeal to Israeli soldiers and workers to join them in toppling all of the rotten capitalist regimes in the Middle East.

Today our members participated in a 3,500 strong joint demonstration of Jews and Palestinians against the war and occupation in front of A-Ram checkpoint outside Ramallah, facing tear-gas and beatings by Israeli police. We will continue to fight against this war of re-occupation, this reactionary government and the millionaires that it represents, and for the masses of the region achieving the only solution to war, oppression and poverty – an independent, socialist Palestine alongside a socialist Israel as part of a voluntary socialist federation of the Middle East.